by Paul Cooney
A lot can happen in a year. Since September 2018, New Zealand has been devastated by terrorism, we’ve seen the rise of the yellow vest protests around Europe, a no-deal brexit looks ever more likely and in continuing the doom and gloom, more and more protests and marches are happening on a regular basis, with climate change being the main issue.
However, since last September, the media students in Rathmines College have been working together on two projects; Fusion Magazine and Fusion Online. The Higher National Diploma students and the News and Media in a Digital Age students worked together all year to deliver interesting and intriguing content. We are now at the end of the cycle and as editor, I would like to thank the whole team and staff at Rathmines College for their help throughout the year. It’s been a fun and challenging year and as a team, we are proud of what we achieved. We hope you enjoyed reading our content.
The world is in a troubling period at the moment. We need news and we need content that speaks the truth, that entertains us and that can act as a break from all the issues we face. Journalism in itself, is facing troubling times too. Author and journalist, Deaglán de Bréadún had this to say about our magazine
Journalism faces a challenging future: print is gradually giving way
to online publication but there will always be a demand for
carefully-researched and well-written articles, no matter how they are
transmitted to the reader. Quality is what counts and, in that regard,
I find Fusion Magazine very encouraging for the future.
“A thoroughly challenging yet enjoyable experience, one I will never forget and one I am proud of being editor of, well done to everyone” – Paul Cooney.
“I enjoyed the Fusion publication immensely. Although there was difficulties along the way, the positives far outweighed the negatives. The magazine is one of the few things I will never lose!” – David Moriarty.
“Probably one of the hardest, yet rewarding, projects that I’ve gotten to be a part of. It was tough going, but we pulled it off and I am so proud of all of us” – Ross Farrell.
“Despite the hardships, our ability to create a definitive product with Fusion is something I am extremely proud of. I may design more magazines in the future, but I am sad, yet happy in the knowledge that there won’t be one like Fusion.” – Kevin Quinn.
“I went into this course and this project with the mentality to throw myself into things I hadn’t done before. And to be honest I impressed myself. Granted I am an artsy kind of guy so I wasn’t completely outside of my wheelhouse, but I still found my ability to jump into new software and just start knocking out articles and graphic design surprising. If I had any advice for people it would be to trust yourself, most of the time you are your biggest obstacle” – David Stevenson.
“This was an interesting experience to say the least. A testing time for the group that ended with a product we are all happy with. A shame we won’t be doing another issue” – Daniel Williams
” Working on Fusion Magazine has been a very interesting experience. I have enjoyed writing articles that were published and had an audience as well as having a creative input into the design of Fusion. The whole process was challenging at time to our team but also quite rewarding.” – Lily Xu
Fusion Magazine 